The early 1990s saw the emergence of a rapidly changing landscape of higher education in Singapore with influence from various trends internationally. This article shares on the embryonic stage of staff development in Singapore and the journey of encounters with SEDA pioneers who helped sow the seeds of understanding the true scholarship of teaching. The SEDA Fellowship and institution accreditation frameworks were catalytic in bringing about a values-based approach and the culture of understanding the learner, the professional identity of faculty and the professional learning community. Finally, the growth of higher education sector and pervasiveness of the SEDA's impact is discussed.